Anchorage Legislative Committee Meeting on Federal Housing Act, State Legislation, and 2027 Priorities - August 6, 2026
Anchorage Legislative Committee Meeting - August 6, 2026
The Anchorage Legislative Committee met on August 6, 2026, from 11:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. to receive updates on federal housing legislation, state legislative developments, federal land transfer for a waste-to-energy project, and to begin framing the 2027 legislative program. The meeting featured presentations from a policy advisor and municipal staff, as well as a public comment period.
Public Comments & Testimony
- Sydney Scout called in at 11:03 a.m. but did not provide any testimony or statement during the designated audience participation period.
Discussion Items
- Update on Federal Housing Legislation (21st Century Road to Housing Act): Joel Herberman, policy advisor at Brownstein, presented on the bill that became law on July 10, 2026, without the president's signature after declining to sign on June 24. The bill passed the Senate 85-5 and the House 358-32. It includes 59 provisions for HUD to implement, including the Build Now Act, which adjusts CDBG allocations based on housing supply growth, beginning in FY2029. HUD must issue guidance by September 2026 on growth rates. Other provisions include a publicly owned land database and pilot programs. Member Brawley expressed concerns that the Build Now Act could penalize municipalities like Anchorage with challenging building environments, questioning whether the incentive structure might punish cities that are trying but not seeing high volume. Chief of Staff Fleet Green confirmed the municipality will engage with the congressional delegation and regulatory process. Mr. Herberman noted no litigation against municipalities is known, but the single-family institutional investor provision (Section 1001) could create challenges.
- State Legislative Update: Policy Director Nolan Clouda reported that the third special session began July 27, 2026, with no current bill on the table. HB 381, addressing S-Corp tax pass-through entities, was voted down. The governor intends to introduce a new version. The mayor's office is guided by an assembly resolution from early March. No questions were raised.
- Federal Pieces – NDAA Land Transfer for Waste-to-Energy Plant: Mr. Clouda updated that the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) includes language in both the House and Senate bills to convey approximately 50 acres of land adjacent to the Anchorage landfill from JBER to the municipality for a waste-to-energy plant. The House bill language is more direct (directing transfer), while the Senate language calls for a study. The House has passed its NDAA; the Senate has not. The committee will engage with conferees to push for the House version. Chair Handlin noted JBER is supportive of the transfer. The timeline for the project is not expected to be significantly delayed.
- Legislative and Budget Priorities for 2027: Member Brawley proposed that the 2027 legislative program (due by December 10, 2026, per code) be brief but broader in scope, including both state and federal priorities on one page each. She emphasized the opportunity with a new governor and a more coordinated federal advocacy approach. She also suggested aligning with the Anchorage School District and other entities on shared priorities like education funding reform. The chair noted he will be stepping back from this committee before that work begins.
Key Outcomes
- No formal votes were taken during the meeting.
- The committee will continue to monitor HUD rulemaking on the 21st Century Road to Housing Act, with staff engaging the congressional delegation.
- The committee will work with the mayor's office to develop the 2027 legislative program, with a proposed format of one-page state and one-page federal priorities.
- The municipality will continue to advocate for the House version of the NDAA land transfer language as the Senate bill progresses.
Meeting Transcript
All right, good morning, everybody. Thank you for being here. I'm going to go ahead and call this meeting to order. We are here for the legislative committee meeting. We are noticed today from 11 a.m. to 12 p.m. And we will start with member introductions in the room. Donald Handlin. And Brawley. Zach Johnson. And on the phone, I see Member Silvers. Great. Thank you. All right. We are going to change the order around just a little bit today. We were hoping to get update from our meeting lobbyist, however, she was had a cancel. So we will go ahead and jump right into an update on federal housing legislation. And we have a representative from obvious uh Brownstein on the phone. If you could introduce yourself for the record, and uh please take it away when you're ready. Hi everyone, uh I'm Joel Herberman, uh policy advisor of Brownstein. Um so I'm here just to provide a brief presentation on the 21st Century Road to Housing Act, uh, which became law uh last month. So happy to answer any questions you might have. Um and so I believe my colleagues, uh Zach Sister and Leah Dempsey provided an update a few months back. Um and since then, a lot has sort of happened to get the bill into law. So just a brief sort of overview of the process. The uh House Financial Services Committee and Senate Banking Committees both sort of crafted their own bills and over the course of the early months of the year, spent a good amount of time sort of sending them back to each other, a lot of uh different policy disagreements between chambers. Um, but ultimately in June, both committees and their leadership came to an agreement on a final package, which passed out of the Senate by an 85 to 5 vote, and the House by a 358 to 32 vote. Uh the final bill stripped out a controversial provision that required large institutional investors to divest of their bill to rent homes seven years after seven years. That was taken out. Um, and also uh a good number of community banking provisions were also in the final bill. Um so the president was uh scheduled to sign the bill into law on June 24th. Um, but due to some politics around uh election legislation, um, the president declined to sign the bill into law, but it ultimately became law on July 10th without the president's signature. Uh so under the constitution, a bill that's presented to the president becomes law after 10 days if the president doesn't sign it or veto it. So at this point, uh the focus turns to implementation. Uh the Department of Housing and Urban Development has dozens of provisions to start implementing. Um 59 provisions were in the bill to be exact, um, and over a hundred different pieces of guidance, rulemakings, and other items need to be set up. Um, so I can just highlight a few of the provisions that may be of most interest to Anchorage. Um, so one provision that made it in was the Build Now Act, which allows CDBG recipients to have their allocations adjusted. Um due to their uh housing supply growth. Um so this would take place uh three years, three fiscal years after enactment. So believe FY 2029 is when this would first um sort of enter the CDBG program. Um and HUD is also required to notify recipients by September of this year of their housing growth rate and sort of issue guidance explaining how the CDBG share would be calculated. Uh so that's something to look forward to pretty soon. Um, there's also provisions on uh publicly owned land database, um, which CDBG grantees would be required to implement. Um, also pilot programs on uh innovation fund, housing planning and implementation grants, um, and a good number of other uh provisions as well. So happy to take any questions uh on any of that. All right, thank you. And we do have a question from uh member Brawley. Yeah, thank you. And I yeah, I appreciate the uh overview.
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